Sleep by C. L. Taylor

Author:C. L. Taylor [Taylor, C. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2018-12-19T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29

Dani

Dani Miller sits ramrod straight on her bunk, her back against the wall, her feet dangling off the side, and stares at the photos on the wall opposite until they smooth and blur into a kaleidoscope of colour. Unlike her cell mate, Dani hasn’t got any photos stuck to the wall with toothpaste. She doesn’t want anyone to know her vulnerabilities or any dirty skanks to see what her daughter looks like. Doesn’t trust herself not to react if they say something that pushes her buttons. She imagines her three-year-old daughter’s face amongst the smudge of colour; focusing in on her until she can clearly see her curly blonde hair, round brown eyes, little squirrel nose and impossibly soft skin. She imagines her mum, grey roots showing against her dark brown hair, leaning over Maisie’s pink princess bed and scooping her up for a hug and a kiss. She’d better not be telling Maisie to call her Mummy or Mama or anything like that. She can call herself Nana or Nini or Nona but not Mummy. Dani is Maisie’s mummy and that’s never going to change.

That’s why she’s doing this. Not because she’s a psycho, although she’s glad that the other women think she is. It keeps her safe, stops anyone from fucking with her. She’s never going to make anything of her life. She’s been told that enough times. When she was a teenager it fucked her right off but now she’s older … well … sometimes you can’t fight what you can’t change. But it’s not going to be like that for Maisie. Maisie’s different. She’s clever and she’s about as beautiful as they get. You need cash though, to make it in this life, and when she’s eighteen a fat lump of cash will be coming her way. That’s if her arsehole of a father doesn’t rob it. Dani hasn’t heard from Del once since she was sent down. Probably got someone else to go on the rob for him so he can get a hit four times a day. Jesus, what was she thinking, buying all that crap about her being the only woman for him? She can see through it all, now that she’s clean.

She gets up, glances over her shoulder to check no one’s walking past her cell, then reaches into the gap she’s dug into her thin mattress and pulls out the toothbrush. She runs her thumb over the pointed end, the plastic burnt and rough. She didn’t make the shank. It was given to her by the same fat dyke who asked her if she wanted to make some money. She tucks it under the band of her bra, then bags out her sweatshirt and steps out of her cell, shoulders back, chin up. It’s just a job, she tells herself as she crosses the corridor. Just a job, a means to an end.

The prisoner jolts as Dani walks into her cell and closes the door behind her. The book she’s reading falls from her hands and she backs up against the wall, her eyes wide and fearful.

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